California initiative proponents start the process by submitting a proposed initiative to the Attorney General, who then writes a title for it. Then the proponents can put the title on their petitions and start collecting signatures. Sometimes the Attorney General’s office is so backlogged with proposed initiatives, it takes a few weeks or even months for them to do this work.
According to this story, a Superior Court Judge ruled that a proposed initiative, that had already been through the process, has been altered so much since then that it must start all over again. That, in turn, will delay the signature-gathering process for that initiative.
There is conflict between the stated purpose of SB 1253 (2014) and the actual statute.
The preamble says that permitting amendments to the initiative would allow correcting “errors in drafting” or discovery of “unintended consequences”, the statute only requires that the amendment be “reasonably germane”.
It is not clear if there is adequate public notice when amendments are made. Any public comments made during the AG review process are transmitted to the proponent. While they are public record, they are not posted to the AG website, and would require a formal public records request to view them.
There is also a conflict between the AG conducting what would hopefully be a neutral review, and the AG representing its own approval of changes sought by the Governor.